The CAREM reactor SOURCE: CNEA

The CAREM concept was first introduced in 1984 as one of the pioneering proposals for 300 MW reactors with the possibility of forming scaled clusters. Furthermore, the design developed by the National Commission of Atomic Energy (CNEA) and the signed off by Applied Research (INVAP) is part of what the nuclear community calls G3+ (generation three plus): it substitutes external subsystems such as pressurizing and water pumps for cooling by natural systems that operate within the reactor vessel. Thus, the design decreases the amount of sensitive components and contact with the outside.

Furthermore, an innovative incorporated hydraulic safety system eliminates the dependency on external energy sources and works passively. For any imbalance in the reactor, graphite rods fall by gravity, thus absorbing excess neutrons and causing a safe shutdown (or SCRAM) in two seconds. For 36 hours the plant would not require external help. ”A tsunami would never have been a problem” ensures the CNEA with an eye to Fukushima.

At least as far as technology is concerned, the Argentine reactor is not without competition. ”It was one of 16 selected from 100 new designs by the Generation IV International Forum as being viable before 2020″ notes Michael Schlamp, project coordinator for CAREM 25, such as prototype reactor has been christened.

The best part is that small G3+ reactors appear to be one of the futures of the nuclear industry. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) estimates that by 2030 there will be at least 43 of these plants in operation worldwide and 96 optimistically. A document from the US Department of Energy (DOE) prepared by the Energy Policy Institute of Chicago does not hesitate to recommend them as one possibility for the US to return to being competitive in reactor design. In the meantime, suppliers like Russia and France’s Areva have decided to join the race.

The reason? Nuclear power is the only way that can guarantee the energy supply by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. Moreover, such modular plants are not only a more secure, proven technology but hey require much less capital — which is essential for a capital-intensive industry vulnerable to financial costs, says the document signed in June of last year in Chicago.

In addition, they are best suited to serve markets with small power grids or isolated geographic areas, which is common in emerging markets where energy demand is growing immensely.

Juan can be reached at juan.dalmasso(at)gmail.com

Luis Betancourt (@luis3etancourt), co-founder and CEO of Localo, is the event’s leading organizer, the purpose of which is to bring together developers, designers, marketers, product managers and entrepreneurs for a weekend and motivate them to realize their ideas and turn them into viable businesses.

The event is essentially organized into three stages. During the first, participants get to know each other and each is given one minute to present their ideas. The second step is to vote for the top 15 ideas and form teams to develop them. Finally, the final products are presented to the event judges, who choose the top three.

“Participants gain the experience of going through the various stages of building an on-line business in just 54 hours,” said Betancourt, who adds that “valuable contacts are made during the event with other participants, mentors and judges that can be the beginning of future projects in the field of entrepreneurship.”

Betancourt speaks not only as an organizer, but also from the trenches as he himself was a participant for the first Startup Weekend held in October 2011 in Bogotá, where his idea was chosen and finally took second place.

Javier Jaimes (@senorpasajero), organizer of the first event and second event which was held in Medellin (Colombia) in November 2011, added that such gatherings “[are] used to make various connections with other communities and investors all over the world and that in one way or another, we can influence the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

In regards to entering, Betancourt explained that anyone can participate. ”The most common profiles are software developers, graphic designers and business people.  We also see others including managers, engineers, journalists, publicists, etc.” During the event attendees have the support of mentors, speakers, organizers and judges who are present during the entire 54 hours. That way, participants have somewhere to turn to for help even if they are new.

On an interesting note, the organization of this Startup Weekend was not carried out conventionally as instead of seeking sponsorship, Betancourt decided to accept “contributions” from local entrepreneurs thus shortening the process and going directly to the brands that could provide something specific to the event. So, instead of asking money from sponsors and then hiring caterers, for example, Betancourt directly contacted Bogota food outlets and asked them to provide their products.

“So the third Startup Weekend is an event for entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs,” he said.

The event will be held at the HubBOG center for entrepreneurship, co-working space and training. For all those who cannot attend, a streaming broadcast can be seen via the official web site of Startup Weekend Colombia.

Startup Weekend is a nonprofit organization founded in 2007 that now organizes these events in hundreds of countries. This weekend, nine other events will be held in Europe, the US and Africa.

Veronica can be reached at figueroaortega90(at)gmail.com

Work date CREDIT: Phil Campbell (CC)

From now until the middle of the decade, enterprises large and small will start to see a massive adoption of mobile devices, both phones and tablets, into the work place to an extent that they will begin to replace traditional hardware.

Many companies, including IBM, have stepped in to produce security solutions to this growing need. Kimber Spradlin, who is an Endpoint Management and Security Specialist at IBM, spoke to Opinno about how the mobile working ecosystem is evolving to facilitate greater functionality while maintaining security.

Spradlin explained that there are essentially three ways an enterprise views private mobile devices. The first is to not allow them. However, as Spradlin said, “that’s not really a choice anymore.” The second option is the one most commonly seen now, and that is low-level access to e-mail and calendaring systems.

Now, with the explosion of more capable smarphones and especially tablets, enterprises are being faced with a third, more challenging situation. Employees of all levels want access to corporate files and have the ability to dowload and edit sensitive data. Already, IBM is reporting that security exploits doubled from 2010 to 2011.

SOURCE: IBM

“You’ve got a platform to do legitimate work on, really it’s more than just e-mail,” Spradlin said about tablets. “But, it’s a very immature market with a wide range of products. [However] in 2013 you will see a high adoption rate among medium-sized companies.”

According to Spradlin, how businesses adapt to this new reality depends equally on software makers such as IBM and Novell and the makers of mobile operating systems.

Spradlin explained currently the most popular way to manage security on mobile devices is via a software agent. That is, a piece of software that manages an enterprise’s specific security policies. However, there are a few issues that still need to be ironed out, she said.

One of the largest of which is Android vs. iOS. Whereas Android allows for the inclusion of proprietary software agents, iOS does not. Therefore, software companies have to play with the APIs that are provided by Apple. This has been shown to limit what is possible within an app. For example, Spradlin said that software makers cannot take advantage of Apple’s Siri for caledaring function within an app. This has led to a one-size-fits-all model.

“So in the Apple world, you are going to get equality across the venders. Your top five or 10 venders will allow you to manage every API Apple offers, but there is nothing more you can do.”

Another problem is the myriad of versions of a particular operating system. This is expecially problematic on Android devices where the same model of phone might have two or three different versions of Android depending on the carrier. With each new release, greater security enchancements are added but end users might not have the ability to upgrade or could even be forced into upgrading to a newer version, thus breaking the security system in place.

Above all else, though, Spradlin said it comes down to comfort. Are employees willing to allow a corporate security agent to be active on their phones the whole time? In other words, would you be comfortable with your company being able to control your phone? While in regulated industries such as health care this will be an automatic ‘yes,’ Spradlin sees a middle road, one that IBM takes when users sync with its Lotus platform.

In this model, policies are set and enforced during syncs with a corporate server or cloud service, but otherwise the device is left alone. Adding to that, containerization is becoming more popular. This is when an app uses a self-contained, encrypted system to work within. In other words, enterprises can provide their employees secure apps that are essentially independent of other functions on the device. Spradlin even predicts a virtualized ‘corporate OS’ independent of a private user’s OS that could be instantly wiped in the future.

 Whichever approach wins the day, Spradlin said businesses are going to need to address the issue as employees are already taking matters into their own hands.

“What we are seeing now is employees applying for free cloud–based solutions,” she said in reference to services such as Dropbox. “When you are talking about sensitive company data, these might not be the best solutions.”

Indeed, with IDC and others reporting upwards of 40% of enterprise endpoint devices being mobile by 2014, the time has come to take a serious look at the options.

Fighting famine

For most of us, the concept of a “famine” is probably a remote one.  Maybe it conjures up images of Ireland in the mid-1800s, or scenes of far-off devastation in rural Africa.  Over the past 20 years, however, millions of children, teens and adults have tried to gain a newfound empathy for those struggling with hunger, and thanks to the Internet, the message is now spreading faster than ever.

World Vision International (WVI), which traces its roots back to 1950, is a worldwide non-governmental organization perhaps best known for its anti-hunger fundraising efforts.  In 1992, WVI launched a campaign known as the 30-Hour Famine, in which participants voluntarily go without food for 30 hours and often donate the money they would have spent on meals to WVI itself or to other charitable causes.

This year, people can take part in the 30-Hour Famine initiative either Feb. 24-25 or Apr. 27-28.  In conjunction with activities leading up to the Famine, WVI last week released the results of a study conducted in January.  The results show that over half (55%) of US teens ages 13-17 believe that social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have helped them to become more aware of others’ needs.  In addition, nearly three-fifths (58%) of teens believe that the benefits of using social networking outweigh the risks.

WVI has recently ramped up its Internet presence to spread the word about the 30-Hour Famine.  As of this writing, the initiative has been “liked” by over 26,000 Facebook users, and nearly 11,000 Twitter users are “following” WVI.

Those of you who have followed these posts over the past few weeks know that that they have been focusing on on-line bullying, crime and other potentially negative effects of using the Internet, particularly social networking.    In light of the fact that most participants in the WVI study believe that the benefits of using these services outweigh the risks, and in respect to the prior articles on the subject, share your thoughts: What is your overall take on the increasingly significant role social networking has in our lives?  Is it good, bad, or does it depend?   And if it depends, what does it depend on?

Luke can be reached at luke.jensen1981(at)gmail.com

Elena de Benavides

Elena de Benavides, CEO of the International Institute of Phlebology S.L., is an economist by training and a specialist in Health Economics and Management of Healthcare Organizations. She is also one of the winners of Spain’s 2011TR35 competition, which is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s prize in recognition of top innovators under 35.

At the end of last year, the latest World Marketing Forum 3.0 took place in Madrid, in which the present environment and future perspectives were analyzed.  Once again it was “the consumer is the protagonist.”  In a high-level environment and with a high-impact address full of innovation presentation by Patricia Seybold focused on “outside innovation” had a strong pull for me.  “Outside Innovation” is a strategy that brings customers into the redesigning of a business, creating with them the products, processes, and services.  In fact, according to her it’s the actual clients who have the control and determine the value of the company.

This concept isn´t new.  Any conversation with a friend or an acquaintance that works in marketing concludes in the need of a real focus on the customer.  Nevertheless, to me the innovation is at the back end.  The fact that we’re talking about an external innovation that focuses on the need to listen to the client, manifests again that we are conscious of the need that innovation should not only be technological. For a few months, in this space, I have tried to communicate this idea making it tied to different concepts, and today is no exception.

In my sector, health care services , innovation has always been technological, and it is fundamental that this continues, but it is not the only way of bringing about innovation.

When people  think of the health care system it is inevitable that they imagine huge hospital systems that are completely bureaucratized, with patients that adapt to way the system provides the service.  Whether we want to accept it or not, public health is today becoming a consumer good and, as such, the end client demands and expects certain levels of quality and efficiency, and expects to be listened to and that his or her needs are met.  These last points affect everything from being diagnosed to the check out at the end of the service.

Those of us that are and will be users of the healthcare system come from a generation born between the 1970s and 1990s. We’re responsible for a series of demands and necessities, one of which is the integration of the healthcare system.  We are in constant communication through the use of social networks, forums and blogs, yet no reliable healthcare information exists in this medium.  We continuously use information and communication technology on a daily basis, but most people generally don’t receive the medical records and reports by e-mail.  We have the latest diagnostic imagery equipment, however most health clinics and centers continue to print on paper.  We have complicated telemedical equipment that uses robotic controls even though it’s not normal to directly contact your doctor via telephone or internet.

Today’s way of communicating has not reached the public health system; we cannot “move” within it like we do with everything else.  And even though I am sure that the adaptation is only a matter of time, the problem is that it is already late and we are lagging behind. We have focused our energy in “what” we offer but we have forgotten about “how” we offer it.

We cannot stop worrying about public health financing nor about the technological innovations in the field, but we also cannot forget that it does no good to introduce innovations into the public health market if we then do not adapt the way we offer the service and communicate with our clients.  Let’s learn from our mistakes and let’s not allow all the work behind each innovation fall through the cracks. 

Founded by two residents from Massachusetts, Antje Danielson and Robin Chase, Zipcar has evolved into a successful company with over 650,000 members as of September 2011.   With Zipcar U, its focus on universities and colleges, the company has attracted a new type of audience and has since been appealing to more administrators to adopt the system.  It’s enticing to students because it is fun, savvy, and has social brand appeal but also to administrators because its cost efficient.  Scott Griffith, CEO and chairman of Zipcar, summed it up pretty well, “…our extensive experience has helped us create and innovate a service that is easy, fun, and cost effective for students [while] helping universities reduce the costs and complexities of campus parking.”

Zipcar essentially offers drivers a way to commute without having to worry about having insurance or owning a car.  They do this by providing cars with particular designation that they use with ease and only have to pay for time used and gas usage.  In addition, drivers can choose from a variety of fuel-efficient models like Escape and Focus made available by a partnership with Ford Motor Company.  This partnership has also led the way for the “Students with Drive” grant program that provides students with free Zipcar memberships and driving credits to support student organization on campus.  There are over 300,000 in grants being given to organizations and one lucky org will receive 10,000 to put towards its cause as well as other grant awards.

Moreover, in order to be intact with today’s social network, Zipcar has also launched new applications both for the iPhone and Android as well as creating a Facebook page where members can also access their services.  Such applications allow members to reserve a car at anytime of the day.  Griffith states, “ …this generation is thinking differently about personal mobility, and they are heavily influenced by technology, social networks and collaborative consumption- all of which are hallmarks of the Zip car model.” The current prices for universities students reflect how cost efficient Zipcar is, for example, the annual fee for a student is $25.  The rates on the vehicles start at $7 a day and $66 per day while offering 180 miles of travel per day.

Zipcar continues to gain momentum with universities and it will be no surprise when it becomes part of every university’s system.  If you want Zipcar to be part of your school, check out their website at Zipcar.com.

What is your opinion on Zipcar? Do you think it would as successful in other countries?

Emilio can be reached at velaemilio2(at)gmail.com

In 1999, Jesus González started working at ONCE, where 70% of their more than 16,600 workers have a disability. Frequently when discussing living with a disability, the topic of sexuality is often ignored. Jesus talked about how homosexuality can lead to many challenges in one’s everyday life, and how he was curious to see if there was any research or literature regarding the unique difficulties of being both homosexual and disabled. After a long search, he found nothing. Jesus decided that he wanted promote discussion on what it was like to be both disabled and homosexual by making a documentary.

In 2004, the documentary El Sexo de los Angeles or Sex of the Angels was released. Jesus wrote the script, and his partner Frank Toro directed the film. The title was chosen to reflect how those with disabilities are often assumed to be asexual. With a significant amount of difficulty, Jesus was able to find four people who were both disabled and homosexual, and were willing to be filmed talking about their experiences. They were accompanied by a clinical psychologist and prominent members of the LGBT and disabled communities. The documentary consisted of a series of moving testimonials. According to Jesus, this first film was his most successful.

The next film that Jesus and Frank produced, Daniela, was their first and only work of fiction. It was about the social challenges of a nerdy and awkward girl named Daniela, and her two best friends, a woman who was trying to get a sex change and a gay man. This movie was too received very well. In fact, many young people who were involved in independent films began to send Jesus and Frank their movie ideas and scripts and asking them for help turning them into short films.

Álbum de Familia, or Family Album was able to receive funding the Community of Madrid and The Spanish Committee of Representatives for People with Disabilities. One condition of the funding was that they represented all four categories of disability (physical disabilities, deafness, blindness, and mental disabilities). In order to find people for this movie, they relied heavily on social networks of those who are disabled. Eventually, they found eight main characters, and asked each one “what is something you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t been able to?” Each character was then filmed achieving that goal. Some examples were being part of a theater company regardless of having Down syndrome, swimming a complete lap with autism, teaching a class blind and learning to dance while in a wheel chair. A Spanish TV station saw Álbum de Familia at a film festival and asked to buy the rights to air it.

The last documentary produced by Jesus and Frank that focused more on homosexuality was La Historia Escondida or The Hidden History. This documentary, released in 2009, focused on the history and struggles of gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual individuals since 5000 BC, with additional emphasis on the movement that took place in Spain in the 21^st century. One of the main objectives of this movie was to show young people how much those before them had to suffer so that they could have a better life.

All in all, it was a fascinating glimpse into a topic that, unfortunately, many ignore. However, with more story tellers bringing these lives to light, society is beginning to come to appreciate these sidelined people.

Byrd can be reached at byrd.bannick(at)gmail.com

These communication problems are a few of the many that MIT professor Henry Lieberman and doctoral student Dustin Smith discussed Monday evening at the BBVA Innovation Center in Madrid during a talk titled: Machine Learning through Language.

Dr. Lieberman SOURCE: CiBBVA

Professor Lieberman started the talk off describing the current market by using banking as an example.  He described the abundance of banks and how, “transactions are becoming a commodity.”  Yet, clients still need help and therefore the service component becomes crucial to the success of the businesses.

“Put the service back into financial services,” he said

Lieberman believes that technology can help improve client/provider interactions and even solve the problem before a human interaction needs to take place.  Don’t worry, this does not mean more robotic phone calls, but it does mean an improvement and spread of current technology, which has most recently been seen with the iPhone 4S and its Siri application.

Service should be the key to every business and to improve it a company has to be aware of the goals of the client and the tools, or in this case software agents, to map between the client’s current state and their goals.

There are thousands of alternatives to reach a goal and a computer would have no problem listing all of them. The difficulty arises because computers do not have knowledge of human problems and even if they did, listing all the possibilities does not simplify the problem.  When a problem arises a human has a general knowledge base to draw from and then explore the most logical alternatives based on their common knowledge. In other words, common sense.

Therefore Lieberman suggests, “we put the person into the computer” and this is exactly what they are doing at MIT.  Open Mind Common Sense is a database that is being filled by people around the world with simple common sense phrases.  The database will eventually be used to help the computers act a bit more like humans.

This common knowledge database is achievable says Lieberman, because “…you have 3 billion seconds to live and it would be impossible to know 3 billion things, one for each second.  Nowadays storing 3 billion phrases on a computer is not difficult.”

Dustin Smith SOURCE: CiBBVA

After offering several examples in which this type of software could be used, including banking, tax services, calendar applications and mobile maps, Dustin Smith began his portion of the talk.

Dustin Smith focused mainly on the basics of linguistics and natural language possessing.

When trying to explain or communicate something to another person one uses reference points that both parties share in the form of mutual belief or common knowledge.   This is called common sense reasoning.  Humans use common sense reasoning as a default for communication, but problems arise when several exceptions occur.

If the two parties do not share a mutual understanding or belief, miscommunication or failure to communicate can occur.  Think of the example in English of bank, as in Bank of America and bank as in riverbank. These words need the context of the sentence to describe them. Also structural ambiguity can occur while communicating, when the order of the words in the sentence is crucial to its significance.  Lastly under specification can occur when describing things that are similar.

In human-to-human communication, miscommunications and misunderstandings frequently occur, but applying a humanistic reaction to a computer system is difficult.  The research is in both creating the common sense knowledge database and teaching the computer to react when miscommunication occurs.

Smith’s specific research deals with creating an application that will improve Google Calendar. The application will interpret the language entered into a Google Calendar and will automatically provide the user with multiple options, through a graphical user interface, that will allow the user to embellish and clarify their plans with little effort.  For example, if the user enters, “dinner with Dan at 8”, the interface will know the user means 8:00pm, assist them in finding the closest restaurants that meet all specifications (time constraints, vegetarians, or alcohol service), and include the travel time.

The talk concluded with some questions and concerns from the audience.  The audience wanted to know, as this common sense database is created and natural language processing is improved, how we will begin to interact with our machines differently. Professor Lieberman foresees a future where voice recognition software is integrated with graphical interfaces and social networks.  Ultimately no interaction will be necessary and the computer will be able to generate the best common sense solutions to a problem or even prevent it from happening.

With security breeches in the news recently and the talk of social networks eventually being included to improve the computer’s assumptions, some audience members expressed a security and privacy concern.  Professor Lieberman responded by saying that some information must be shared in order to improve the role of technology in our lives.

“The doctor can’t help you if you won’t take your cloths off,” he concluded.

The application, using a timer and the iPhone’s microphone, is activated by the steady breathing associated with deep sleep. This then triggers Inception-style sound effects—water lapping at the shore, chirruping birds rustling in a forest, or maybe vendors shouting in exotic markets – to provoke a dream world based on the setting you chose. There’s even a romantic dream option – a scenario designed for both men and women in the mood for something a little spicier. Turn off the lights and get ready to be lulled to sleep by the dulcet tones of voices whispering sweet nothings in your ear.

“Choose the voice whisper dream confession for men to be”, says the Google translation of the Yumemiru website, “and pretty women … I call will be sent to your ears in a state of REM sleep. I can see a dream that is named after the sound of fun when you wake up in the morning.” And, really, who amongst us doesn’t want a “dream…named after the sound of fun”? Really?

But is what this app claiming even possible? Can your dreams be influenced or even controlled?

Dr. Bahador Bahrami, an expert on decision making and subliminal messages with the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, thinks it’s possible.  While studies specifically directed at whether or not the dreaming brain receives subliminal messages have not been done, he says the waking brain definitely absorbs images which it later replays at night – even if the viewer doesn’t remember seeing them.

Bahrami cites a study by Harvard, Boston University and Beth Israel Medical Center where researchers discovered that they “could manipulate the content of dreams” in patients with amnesia who were directed to play “A LOT OF Tetris.”  Their dreams were filled with those old familiar falling boxes — and this despite being unable to recall having played the game!

But Bahrami’s own research goes a step further. In a 2007 study he and his UCL colleagues found that subliminal messages that are completely invisible – not seen and then forgotten, but completely unregistered – actually attract the brain’s attention on a subconscious level. “What’s interesting here is that your brain does log things that you aren’t even aware of and can’t ever become aware of,” he says. “These findings point to the sort of impact that subliminal advertising may have on the brain.”

Does this mean that after your designer dream fades, you rub the sleep from your eyes and realize you weren’t just flying over the Grand Canyon but were safe in bed the whole time, that you will have unwittingly been the subject of a secret marketing campaign?

For the time being, probably not. But that doesn´t mean this couldn’t potentially become a new, valid form of marketing. The studies Bahrami mentions were based on visual memory, not auditory, that doesn’t mean the same effect isn’t possible.

And about programming yourself to see images of the things you desire? Aren’t these dreams, in and of themselves, a form of self-subliminal messaging? You need a vacation, so you dream about the turquoise waters of a Caribbean island. You want your business to be successful, so you dream about being ridiculously wealthy.

Could that have any real-world effect after the dream is over? Will your waking self strike it rich after your dream self wins the lottery? Bahrami says that’s not likely. “Although seeing images of wealth and money may be nice, there is no inherent information in them for how to get rich.”

But a lack proof hasn’t stopped other related industries from growing and succeeding – just look at the self-help book and movie phenomenon, The Secret. Were they to combine its ‘if you dream it, you can do it’ philosophy with Yumemiru’s night time visualizations, the result could be astronomical success.

Laura can be reached at laura.eliza.mitchell(at)gmail.com

By Celeste North of emprende.la for Opinno. Emprende.la focuses on entrepreneurial innovation in Mexico.

Networking is key to the creation and growth of any business. As Mexico explodes onto the start-up scene, unique opportunities are making it a pit stop on the road to success.

StartupBus Road Trips to Austin

One of the most interesting ideas around creating start-ups and sharing knowledge about how to validate an idea, gather a team and develop a product is probably StartupBus. StartupBus is, as defined on their site, “an invitation-only community of hackers, hustlers and hipster passionate about start-ups. We are best known for our annual competition where we bring new people into our community, by doing a hackathon on a bus that’s traveling 60 miles an hour towards Austin in time for SxSW.”

This year the buses will depart from 7 different locations: New York, Florida, San Francisco, Ohio, Los Angeles, Louisiana and Mexico City. The fact that Mexico City is the only city outside of the United States is noteworthy.

The reason for this bus to get selected was in part related to the fact that the Mexican community is very outspoken and active online. Before selecting the cities to participate, the organizers of StartupBus made a worldwide invitation for people to nominate their city and make as much online buzz as possible via tweets and Facebook likes. Mexico City was for several weeks the most active city in the participating cities. This blew the organizers away and ended up in Eoin McMilan, Mexico’s bus driver, to end up visiting the country and meeting with entrepreneurs and VCs.

Applications are now open and a small group will be selected to join the bus and develop a product on the move. It will be very interesting to follow the development of this project and the start-ups that come out from such an experience.

Geeks on a Plane Soars to South America

Another event coming to Mexico is Geeks on a Plane, an event organized by 500 Startups with the mission of connecting tech communities all over the world. The tours include start-ups, investors and executives keen to connect with burgeoning technology markets worldwide.

The first tour for 2011 has been announced and will include Miami, Sao Paulo, Mexico City and Buenos Aires. Applications to join the group departing in Miami or to participate in one of the hosting countries are open.

It’s important to notice this is not the first time Geeks on a Plane is traveling to South America, but it’s the first time Mexico is to be on the tour. This is a good indicator of how over the past years, Mexico has gained relevance in Latin American start-up scene.
With these kinds of projects placing their attention on the region, new business opportunities will certainly arise to benefit all those involved. As Latin America and Mexico in particular face a set of challenges related to their social environment, it will be interesting to see how technology-based companies will arise and change the region.